Star Dust
The Biodroid Empire has launched a mass attack on Earth. Fortunately, its entire network of ships use shields powered remotely from a single generator located on their homeworld. As a feared pilot, you must fly your Astrohunter spaceship through hostile territory to destroy it. The journey is viewed from above. The threat is from nine increasingly-tough Supercruisers, which have the ability to launch spaceships, missiles and mines. These must all be avoided or shot out. In this part of the game, you have four lives, represented by shields which deplete as you take hits. The last Supercruiser contains the six all-important Generator panels. This final phase of the game takes place on foot, as you destroy them with projectiles. You must then return to your ship before everything explodes and takes you with it.
SCREENSHOTS
PHYSICAL
HISTORY
Star Dust is a vertically scrolling shooter developed by Spanish studio Topo Soft and released in the UK by Kixx in 1987 for the ZX Spectrum. The full version was included on a Sinclair User covertape in 1991. It was also released for Amstrad CPC, MS-DOS, and MSX.
The introductory screens include music composed by Pablo Toledo. The same music was later re-used for the game Bronx.
Gameplay
The player controls a small space ship called an "Astrohunter", which flies over the surface of a series of large enemy supercruisers on their way to attack Earth. The player must avoid or destroy various ground targets and free-flying drones in order to eventually reach an array of shield generators. The ship is equipped with a gun that can be improved by collecting power-ups, and a second weapon that targets objects on the ground.
When all the supercruisers have been passed, the Astrohunter lands in an enemy starship and its pilot continues on foot to reach the shield generators. After destroying the generators the pilot must be returned to the ship to escape.
References
1CC RUNS
One-credit clears we point to as the benchmark for this game.
SCORES
RELEASES 5 systems
PHYSICAL RELEASES 1 box
